When Is A Trance Not A Trance?

It’s commonly pointed out by hypnotherapists that the state of mind we call hypnosis is something all of us experience in our everyday lives.

We enter this state during periods of concentrated attention when we shut out surrounding distractions to focus on a particular thing or sensation. This might be a television programme, a book or a piece of music.

It could also be a train of thought, which we get caught up in to the exclusion of all else, pursuing it to the point where we lose conscious awareness of our environment. I’m talking here about daydreaming of course.

When you think about it in these terms you begin to realise that we actually spend large chunks of our lives in trance states, states where our attention is very focused – often to the exclusion of all else.

Can't work often demand a kind of absorption which shuts down our awareness of other aspects of our lives – the teacher in the classroom, the executive giving a presentation, the sales person selling a product? It’s as if everywhere else ceases to exist in those moments of intense involvement.

A trance, therefore, isn’t something we are ‘put into’ by a hypnotist, whether on a stage or in the consulting room. It is a frame of mind we are all familiar with and which pervades many aspects of our experience.

What the hypnotherapist does is teach us how we can utilise this state in a more self-aware manner to help us relax and replenish ourselves - as well as to get into touch with our unconscious mind.

Too often we deny the role of the unconscious in our lives and do not recognise what an amazing resource it can be. Hypnotherapy helps us to use trance states in ways that can open us up to these benefits.

JG